Facebook Reels, launched in the US in September, has gone global in over 150 countries. The TikTok copycat has new creative tools, including 60-second videos, and testing of new, non-interruptive Facebook Reels Overlay Ads has been expanded to all creators in the US, Canada and Mexico.

Also taking a page from TikTok is YouTube, which is bolstering its creators’ tools with a Live rings feature. YouTube users streaming live will have an illuminated red ring around the channel avatar; clicking on the avatar will take users to the livestream. TikTok and Instagram have similar illuminated rings offering access to live video.

Tumblr is offering a new subscription for $4.99/month that removes ads from a user’sTumblr feeds. “You can set up ad-free browsing on your personal desktop computer, from anywhere in the world, and then enjoy the same effervescent Tumblr you know and love (yes, including mobile) without the interruption of ads,” said the company in a blog post.

Move over, Pandora – Amazon Music is now the #2 music streaming service after Spotify, according to eMarketer. By year’s end, Amazon Music will have 52.6 million users (up 5.3%) in the US, versus 49.1 million for Pandora (down 6.7%). Top dog Spotify will have 89.2 million users by the end of 2022, up 7.0%.

Reddit is now offering personalized recommendations. “Redditors told us they want an easier way to explore current and new interests, so today, we are rolling out our first new surface in nearly two years – the Discover Tab,” said a February 24 blog post. During initial testing, Reddit reports, one in five people joined at least one new community after using the Discover Tab.

Activision Blizzard is facing a lawsuit from a shareholder alleging violations of the Securities Exchange Act in its proposed sale plan to Microsoft. The suit by shareholder Kyle Watson claims the deal is not in the best interest of Activision shareholders, but will “produce lucrative benefits” for Activision Blizzard’s officers and directors. “We disagree with the allegations made in this complaint and look forward to presenting our arguments to the Court,” responded the videogame publisher.

Havas Group has acquired UK digital experience agency Inviqa. The agency will merge with Havas CX agency ekino in London, but the brand will be retained and run by founder Yair Spitzer. “As the world begins to transition out of the pandemic, customer experience continues to represent one of our biggest growth opportunities,” said Havas CEO Yannick Bollore.

Sling TV is now accepting cryptocurrencies for monthly subscription payments. Blockchain payment provider BitPay is processing the payments for holders of Sling accounts opened using US currency.

DoubleVerify reported 4Q21 net income of $28.4 million, up 248%, and revenue up 34%, to $105.5 million. For the first quarter of 2022, the company projects a revenue rise of 33%, to about $90 million. DV went public last April.

Tremor International reported healthy 2021 earnings. “Our strategy to provide the market with a robust data driven end-to-end tech platform offering simplicity for customers with a focus on Video and CTV, resulted in contribution ex-TAC growth of 20% in Q4 2021 compared to Q4 2020, and 64% growth for the full year 2021,” said CEO Ofer Druker. “Underpinning our strong growth was an increase in customer spend on our CTV services, which increased 108% across our platform during 2021.

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ADVERTISING & MEASUREMENT

Discovery, Inc. and Omnicom Media Group announced a new data trial pilot that aims to offer new currencies to advertisers this Upfront season. “It is vital that we work with our clients who believe they have an idea that might improve upon the current status quo in measurement,” said Jon Steinlauf, Chief U.S. Ad Sales Officer, Discovery. “This pilot program with OMG ensures our partners can test best-of-breed measurement solutions, as well as trial new linear TV currencies, which will be an important first step towards transitioning to an eventual accredited person-based cross-platform currency.” The trial is currently in progress across multiple advertiser categories and evaluates linear delivery for OMG clients via several measurement services.

GroupM is launching a “unified programmatic marketplace” that will provide clients with “direct and advantaged access to high-quality publisher inventory.” The announcement of GroupM Premium Marketplace follows partnership agreements with Magnite in North America and PubMatic in EMEA. “This partnership is indicative of how modern agencies are transforming media planning and execution, with GroupM leading the way on innovation,” said Sean Buckley, Chief Revenue Officer at Magnite. “We are excited to roll up our sleeves and collaborate with the GroupM team to make advertising more efficient and effective.”

Mondel?z International has named Innovid as its preferred global solution for Dynamic Creative Optimization. Mondel?z will use Innovid’s DCO technology to deliver real-time, personalized advertising experiences at scale and across channels, including CTV, maximizing campaign efficiency and performance.

Comcast’s advertising division has licensed viewing data from the set-top boxes in subscribers’ home to measurement company VideoAmp, which uses big data from set-top boxes and smart TVs to estimate deduplicated audiences. “We are thrilled to work with Comcast as a way to advance national and local media currency solutions,” said VideoAmp founder and CEO Ross McCray. “This furthers our mission of providing a new, software-based media currency that creates higher return on ad spending for advertisers and additional revenue for publishers.”

Spectus, a solution for the responsible analysis of location data, has officially launched. Spectus was created by the leadership team at Cuebiq, to grow the geospatial-focused Data Cleanroom offering (formerly known as Cuebiq Workbench). Cuebiq will remain as an ad tech business solely focused on Media Measurement and Audience Targeting, and become a channel partner of Spectus. “Over the last three years, there has been a significant increase in adoption of geospatial analytics,” said Antonio Tomarchio, Founder and CEO of Spectus. “The pandemic accelerated this increased demand as many organizations desperately needed visibility into different trends across the nation with completely heterogenous local pandemic policies.”

Measurement company Samba TV is launching a new advertising currency, incremental cost per thousand impressions, where marketers only pay for ad impressions served within households previously unexposed to their linear TV campaigns. The new performance-based iCPM metric is aimed at helping advertisers discover and reach audiences across linear, streaming, online, and mobile video. “With more than a third of all US. consumers no longer watching any linear television, it has become a business imperative for brands to find new solutions,” said Samba TV SVP of Revenue Products Avi Brown. “iCPM by Samba TV is the first omniscreen solution that provides marketers with incremental reach as a performance guarantee currency.”

IAB Tech Lab announced their first addressability specification incubated within Project Rearc: Seller Defined Audiences. The SDA specification allows publishers, DMPs, and data providers to scale first-party data without data leakage or reliance on deprecated IDs and/or new, untested technologies. Specifically, it aims to democratize the concept of audience cohorts for the open ecosystem; provide a conceptual foundation and technical scaffolding; and support ongoing innovation, growth, and open-market competition on top of a shared, flexible framework.

Clinch introduced SaaS platform Flight Control, unifying campaign management in one end-to-end platform, from strategy to media planning, creative to trafficking, with mid- and post-campaign analytics. “Flight Control is a representation of what Clinch has always sought to do with creative personalization from the client perspective, which is to simplify the logic-building that enables successful DCO campaigns across all channels,” said Oz Etzioni, CEO of Clinch. “It’s no secret that until now, the process of planning, activating and then measuring campaign performance has introduced almost as much friction into campaigns as it is intended to solve.”

Magnite unveiled Live Stream Acceleration, a technology designed to help publishers more effectively monetize their supply, ensuring that ads are served in a timely manner without burdening their technical infrastructure. LSA regulates queries per second from elevated audience spikes, resulting in less throttling and more fill. A key benefit for advertisers is that they can address more actionable supply, with a greater likelihood that their ad will serve as a result of LSA.

Digital advertising platform KERV unveiled new features for its KERV TV solution with dynamic CTV QR product, including placement options on screen, linking options to products and a simplified process of inserting QR codes. The features were designed to make it easier to implement QR codes in CTV ad campaigns while also driving measurable ROI for brands. KERV TV now includes the ability to dynamically move QR codes on screen while streaming based on the context of the video. CTV QR codes generated through the KERV platform can lead directly to product pages, websites, or even add to calendar events. When paired with other KERV products, brands can also direct QR codes to fully interactive versions of the video as a companion shopper, featuring products that are a part of the programming on the user’s CTV.

Denver-based digital advertising firm Booyah Advertising has announced the purchase of FiveFifty, a programmatic agency, and the debut of FiveFifty by Booyah, a programmatic division which will leverage The Trade Desk. “Booyah has long sought to expand via acquisition, and we have been waiting to find an agency that not only is the best at what they do, but that shares our values and complements our expertise,” said Troy Lerner, CEO of Booyah Advertising. “FiveFifty was the first company we’ve looked at that checks all those boxes and is one with which we’ve been familiar and friendly for years.”

Digital marketplace allrites announced their expansion into Web3 and the launch of content distribution and funding platform ritestream. By leveraging NFT technology and encouraging fractional ownership of film and TV projects, ritestream aims to democratize the creator economy, giving independent producers “the exposure they deserve.”

STREAMING

Netflix struck a deal with the French film industry that cuts the wait time for streaming movies from 36 months to 15 months after their theatrical release. In return, Netflix has agreed to invest a minimum of $45 million in at least 10 local films per year to be released in French cinemas. “This agreement is a new step towards our virtuous integration in the unique French cinema ecosystem,” said a Netflix spokesperson. “It reflects both our constructive contribution to the AVMS negotiation process and our commitment to be part of the French cultural exception.”

Philo has inked a deal with entertainment company Kin to bring “Boss Moves” starring Rasheeda Frost (“Love & Hip Hop”), to the platform, marking their first foray into original programming. The series will also be available, via Kin, across YouTube, Facebook, and Instagram. In addition, Philo will bring over 65 hours of Kin’s women’s lifestyle content to its platform.

AccuWeather has joined Redbox’s roster of streaming channels. The AccuWeather NOW streaming service on lineup features weather video; stories illuminating the potential impact of forecasted weather; social weather content from platforms such as TikTok, Instagram, Twitter, and others; as well as long-form storytelling of major weather events.

Cynopsis Team